Restating the Obvious

Someone on Dr. Joel Fuhrman's member-website described an instance of parents giving a 22-month-old child wine to drink at Thanksgiving in a sippy cup -- and asked for Dr. Fuhrman to comment. Dr. Fuhrman held nothing back on this one. If you have any doubts about the suitability of alcohol in ANY amount for a young child -- and what you should do if it ever happens in your presence -- read Dr. Fuhrman's obviously angry response to this situation -- here.

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The Right Girl for the Job

Daughter Liz was recently moved by her company from Atlanta to Chicago to take over an under-performing store (Lindt chocolates) in a large mall there -- a store about three times the size of the one she had been managing in Atlanta. She's been doing 12-hour days, six days a week, to bring the store up to par in the midst of the busiest season of the year. She sent this update to our family early Saturday morning to give us an idea of what it's been like -- and to remind us to be patient with retail folks this time of year. They picked the right girl for the job, I tell 'ya:

Just to give you guys an idea of what the holidays are like for a store manager in retail...

I have been awake since 4am planning out my weekend because yesterday we did about $11,400 in sales. Two of those customers spent a combined $8300.

However, I now have to tie 280 fabric bags around 280 large bags of chocolate to be delivered to Wisconsin by Tuesday. The kicker? The fabric bags won't be in my store until Monday. On top of that I have to build 105 chocolate gift baskets ($50 a piece) by Tuesday afternoon (35 a day). On average in my store we house about 25 assembled baskets which I now have to take apart to use the pieces and parts to build my own new ones. This morning I will be driving to our outlet store in Aurora, IL to pick up additional baskets and shrink wrap before heading to my own store to work today. (I sold more than what we actually had in stock.)

So, in addition to all of that I still have to meet my daily sales goals ($5000-$10,000/day) and receive 5 pallets (about 380 cases) of shipment on Tuesday into a stock room that holds half that amount plus $8300 worth of sold merchandise.

But I have to say this is still my favorite time of year to work and somehow the thrill of "how did I just do that?" makes it all worth it. But the next time you are out shopping, keep in mind what it takes to get through just the weekend. And have patience with the sales person trying to help you because you have no idea what it takes get through the "behind the scenes" part of our day. Much less, trying to smile through it all with a little holiday cheer sprinkled on top!

Love you guys!!
Liz

Sent from Liz's iPhone

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Blu-Ray Primer

Since all DVD's are now being replaced by the new Blu-Ray Disc (BD) format, we might as well understand what that means. USA Today put together 10 questions with plain English answers about the new video format and what it will mean for home video viewers. Read it here.

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I Like This

I like this video about Christmas -- see what you think:

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Delightful Video

One of Daniel's and Jennifer's friends from college is a guy named Chris Sinclair, a talented photojournalist who has traveled all around the world taking beautiful pictures and videos. A number of months ago, Chris posted to his blog what I thought was one of the neatest videos I've ever seen. It's a short segment he created to play at his sister's wedding reception, that captures how his sister and her fiancé met during their college years.

I only know of Chris through Daniel and Jennifer (he gave me some helpful camera advice a couple years ago), and I don't know Chris' sister or her (now) husband. But I have admired Chris' photography a number of times on his web site. When I first came across this video I was so impressed with it that I watched it a number of times. It seemed to disappear off his site for a while, but I noticed that it is back up. So I'm going to share the link hoping you'll enjoy it as much as I did. (And hoping Chris won't mind!)

What I liked about it: how natural Chris made it seem; how obviously talented he is as a videographer and composer; love the music; love the way he synced their words from the interviews with their actions in the video. Just a pleasure to watch.

The video is wide-screen on Chris' site, so watch it there at this link. (Chris also provides a few paragraphs of explanation about how he did the video for those who are interested.)

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Altering Reality

I tweaked one of the pictures of Ellen and Arianna taken over Thanksgiving. I am now guilty of altering reality via technology:

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Momentum Is Gathering

I just learned today of a new documentary DVD that is due to be released December 19 on the state of health in America and the role of diet and nutrition. All the speakers are advocates of a plant-based diet, and you've seen many of their names in this blog: John Robbins, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. John McDougall, and others. (On two separate occasions I have sent Dr. Esselstyn emails and had the phone ring within 10 minutes with Dr. Esselstyn on the line, responding to my inquiry. Really nice guy!)

The documentary is called Processed People. The website is here and the trailer is here:

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